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abstainately, echosystem, justifiction, predelection, releaf

Some words that don’t quite pass mustard have accumulated in my everything/junk drawer. Dumping out the drawer to make room for more questionable treasures.

(1) “Abstainately” for “obstainately.” An excellent eggcorn. If it exists, that is. Only one example turns up:

Eschatology forum: “You abstainately stated your opinion (holier-than-thou. right?) and then showed distaste for the members of this Board’s choice of Moderator.”

(2) “Echosystem” for “ecosystem.” “Echosystem” is a clever word twist that has become the name of a band and of a software product. Perhaps it is nothing more than a misspelling when used in place of “ecosystem.” But someone, somewhere, may think that “echo” and “nature” go together.

(3) “Justifiction” is employed as a wry portmanteau for “fictional justification.” But there are some examples on the web that either have no satire in them or a satire that is so deep I can’t detect it. Such as this one:

Custom student essay: “The justifiction of slavery is also explained by using various assumptions as to why their presence does not degrade the value of human beings”

If “justifiction” is an eggcorn, the dropped “-ca“ syllable moves it into the eyecorn (not earcorn) category..

(4) “Predelection” for “predilection.” “Predilection” derives from the Latin root for “love/take delight in” (We get the word “diligent” from the same root, but not, oddly enough, “delectable.”). English and Romance language speakers tend to hear in “predilection” the word “election,” a term derived from a different Latin root, and the reason for the confusion may be semantic: predilection usually leads to a choice, an election. There are a vast number of “predelection” examples on the web. Seems unlikely that they are all simple misspellings.

(5) “Releaf from” for “relief from.” Among the thousands of examples on the web of “releaf from” may be few that are motivated by the image of relief as a fresh leafing of a tree. Or maybe not.